The present invention relates to a protective article of clothing and more particularly to leggings which are adapted to surround the lower portion of the legs of a wearer whereby they are protected from snake bites.
The use of protective leggings is well known. In particular, hunters, hikers, and other outdoorsmen have used various protective leggings to protect against snake bites when walking through heavy undergrowth areas.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,269,036, issued to Parker et al on Aug. 30, 1966, discloses a protective legging including a protective sheet made of aluminum or similar material.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,191,185, issued to Martin on Jun. 29, 1965, discloses a protective legging having two fabric concentric cylinders with a lining of lightweight plastic material such as styrofoam. The legging is disclosed as being preferentially of a thickness of about five-sixths of an inch. Although the fabric is penetrable by the fangs of a snake, the thickness of the plastic material layer prevents the fangs from reaching the inner fabric cylinder, thereby protecting the legs of the wearer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,057,853 issued to McLane on Nov. 15, 1977, discloses a protective legging having a double layer of closely woven stainless steel mesh to protect the wearer against snake bites.
The Brewer U.S. Pat. No. 3,153,864 issued on Oct. 27, 1964 discloses a protective legging which is adjustable in size.
The Knight U.S. Pat. No. 3,758,963 issued on Sep. 18, 1973 discloses a snake protective device having hinged semi-cylindrical halves and made of aluminum, plastic, or the like.
Stickles U.S. Pat. No. 2,744,846 issued on May 8, 1956 and Davis U.S. Pat. No. 3,562,810 issued on Feb. 16, 1971, both disclosed the use of garments made of protective material in order to protect against bullets and similar projectiles.
Reinfandt U.S. Pat. No. 3,902,196 shows a fabric arrangement using ballistic nylon to protect against penetration from dog teeth.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,720,040 issued on Oct. 11, 1955 to Rogers relates to rain pants and discloses various connectors for connecting portions together including cloth strips on a belt to connect two complimentary snap fasteners.
The Hunt U.S. Pat. No. 361,360 issued on Apr. 19, 1887, and the Frieder U.S. Pat. No. 2,816,578 issued on Dec. 17, 1957 both disclose arrangements of woven fabric, the Frieder patent describing a ballistic cloth type of woven fabric.
West German Patent 811,102 issued on Aug. 16, 1951 discloses a legging arrangement using a zipper extending substantially along the length of the legging.
In addition to the above designs, at least two kinds of below knee or half leg (i.e., not full leg length) snake protective garments have been available. One kind uses a hard plastic cylinder having split side edges which overlap. Although it may protect against snake bites, its rigidity and other characteristics make it generally uncomfortable. Another type of these half leg snake leggings are made of canvas over a wire mesh and have separate side edges which overlap or come together with three buckle type fasteners spaced at different places along the length of the side edges. The wire mesh is generally heavy to wear and, although it is not rigid, it is generally stiff.
One of the present inventors previously patented a design for snake proof chaps under U.S. reissue Pat. No. 32,506 issued on Sep. 22, 1987 to Hightower and hereby incorporated by reference. That protective garment included a full length (designed to cover most of a wearer's thighs) generally tubular portion for enclosing a wearer's legs. Use of a special woven fabric provided protection against snake fangs while allowing the garment to be relatively flexible and thereby providing the wearer with more comfort than typical for other snake protective leggings. Accordingly, the snake chaps of that patent have enjoyed considerable commercial success over quite a few years now. During various demonstrations of those chaps, some of the inventors of the present application have had live poisonous snakes, such as diamondback rattlesnakes, lunge at them hundreds of times and possibly as many as 2,000 times. This experience has shown that most of the time snakes will lunge at the lower part of a wearer's leg.
The snake chaps according to the previous Hightower patent worked quite well at safeguarding wearers from these type of attacks. However, they may provide more protection than is needed in certain circumstances. For example, if one is going to go hunting or hiking in an area where the poisonous snakes are likely to be relatively small in length, the Hightower design of snake chaps is protecting the upper leg of the wearer when such protection is unlikely to be needed. Under those circumstances, that design of snake chaps may be improved upon to provide protection at necessary parts of the wearer, while at the same time maximizing the comfort to the wearer and minimizing the weight of the protective legging.